Saturday, February 03, 2007

Saturday 02/03 A.M. Quickie:Final Countdown to SB XLI

UPDATE (4:45 p.m.): Michael Irvin elected to Pro Football Hall of Fame, along with five others who will be eclipsed in the spotlight by the Playmaker (or, as Whitlock likes to call him, the "Pipemaker.") That'll be some party in Canton. Can a Hall of Famer get a table dance?

Super Bowl XLI Countdown: The Saturday before the Super Bowl is a great day to do everything EXCEPT care about the game. So just a short batch of briefs today, as I spend some long-overdue P.T. with my little boy.

NFL Commish: "Accountability." If that was the theme of Goodell's "State of the Game" address yesterday, I'd like to see him enforce it with more punishment for idiotic off-field behavior. (But make no mistake: It's not like the exploits of the Bengals or Chargers has hurt the game's popularity.)

Ted Johnson: Blame Belichick. I neglected to point out the dramatic Ted Johnson story from yesterday's New York Times, where he basically said he has early Alzheimer's from all of the concussions. But the headline was buried: Did Belichick force him to play, exacerbating the condition? Johnson thinks so. Genius-level success carries a price.

Favre returning next season: You all know how I feel about this. He does more harm to his franchise than good by coming back – they can't move on into the next era with him still there, and it's not like he's going to lead them to a Super Bowl. It's arguable that he puts himself ahead of the team -- but way worse is that the team execs let him.

NBA: Carmelo can, should and will be an All-Star, despite the original snub. This reminds me of Gilbert Arenas last season. There's plenty of injury subs to be made in the West, and Melo is a lock. Oh, and he had 33 last night, helping the Nuggets end a four-game losing streak.

Meanwhile, the Celtics lost their franchise-record 14th straight game. They really are working hard to land either Oden or Durant, aren't they? I'll repeat my hypothetical from yesterday, in defense of tanking: Would you trade a single 0-82 season for 10 seasons of LeBron? (Or, in this case, Oden or Durant?) I would.

NBA Tonight: The last time Gilbert faced off against Kobe, Arenas scored 60-plus in L.A. and Kobe whined that Gil doesn't take "quality shots," which was the runaway winner for the 2006 Pot-Kettle Award. The game tonight is in DC and the Lakers are weary, coming off a game last night in Indiana; I expect Agent Zero to go crazy on the Lakers. How about an opening over/under of 45?

UPDATE: Holy smokes. You hear these stories about wild stuff at practice, away from the spotlight. You never actually see them. This is one: Gilbert bet Wiz shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson $20,000 -- $20,000! -- that Gil could hit 100 college 3s SHOOTING WITH ONE HAND than Stevenson could hit from NBA 3-point range shooting normally. And Wizardsdotcom has the video. It's amazing. And, of course, Gil won. $20,000!

MLB Hot Stove: The biggest bargain in MLB? Well, it's probably Miguel Cabrera's $350K salary – but among players who are actually beyond their original cheap-ass deals, Justin Morneau's new 1-year, $4.5 million deal is a bargain. How does a reigning MVP (who led his small-market team to the playoffs) not deserve a bigger raise? What would his value be on the open market? Double that $4.5M/year? More?

Craziness at the top of the high school basketball national Top 25! OJ Mayo and No. 2 Huntington (WV) -- poised to take over the No. 1 spot after No. 1 St. Benedict's lost earlier this week -- lost to Scott County (KY) last night. Who should be No. 1? Current No. 3 Oak Hill? I don't think so: Not after losing so publicly (on ESPN) to Chicago Simeon. My pick: Current No. 5 and unbeaten St. Anthony (NJ).

17 comments:

Yes, so us 95% of Packer fans who are happy that Favre has decided to return must be selfish for not wanting the team to move on to the next era. Whatever. Now that the truth about you being a former "HUGE" Bears fan is out, maybe you should ease up on the Favre-bashing for your own professional reputation.

How about some high school consideration for Eric Gordon-led North Central of Indianapolis? The overall record is 12-3, but that is against some of the toughest in-state competition in the country.

They have a loss to Lawrence NOrth obviously minue Oden and Conley, but still a solid team this year. They have a loss to Warren Central which features Ohio State-bound junior Walter Offutt, and htey have a 1 point loss to state power Muncie Central, who was only the state runner-up the last two years to those Oden/Conley teams.

Not to mentiont hey just absolutely CRUSHED nationally ranked Loyola Academy on national TV. To show you how good basketball is in the state of Indiana even minus the Lawrence North monster this year (who set a state record for winning 50 straight games this year, thanks in large part to those two). North Central is ranked 7th in the class 4A top 10. 11 of the top 16 teams fedd into North Central half of the state tournament as well.

What does that say about Indiana basketball when the 7th best team just destroyed a nationally ranked one? No one is even talking about the #1 team in 3A, the next smallest class, that is ranked 4th in the overall state poll (regardless of class)

All from the land of Butler! (Who is getting the top player from that top ranked 3A team)

Yeah, I'd guess Morneau would be over $10M/year, too. Cabrera, on the other hand, would probably be able to nearly double whatever Morneau gets. It's gonna hurt when they're both in the East bashing the O's for years on end. And Favre may be hurting his legacy (remember when he was in the debate for best QB ever?) but it's hard to see how he holds the Pack back. Didn't it take the franchise about 25 years to "start over" from the Lombardi era? Like, right up until they traded for Brett Favre? The 4 straight years of retirement talk and the obvious slippage in skills are annoying, but he still isn't getting hurt so let him keep playing.

P.S. - screw Belicheck and the whole B.S. NFL stance that they care about concussions (sorry for the tome)

Your point on Favre is only valid if the sole purpose is to win a Super Bowl. Since on average, a team will win once in 32 years, that really can't be the sole purpose. Actually the real purpose of any franchise is to make money. They partially do that by selling tickets and merchandise.

Let me guess that replacing Favre next year will not net the Packers any more revenue. In addition, we can fully expect any GB QB next year to start for a year or two and then be replaced. Give the fans what they want!

The NFL cares as much about concussions as it does about steroid use. They don't really like it and will publicly try to dissuade players but ultimately know it is an intrinsic part of their game. 310 lb O-linemen aren't grown on trees. They are created in the weight room and Balco lab. Also players know they can sit out with a concussion and can also be replaced and never see a starting role again. It is a brutal business.

Somehow I really doubt that 95% of Packer fans are glad Favre has returned. I'm pretty sure I've talked to more than one who are quietly ready for the Aaron Rodgers era already. It's not that they don't love Favre, it's that he's, well, obviously not what he was ten or even five years ago.

I'm from Wisconsin. I do not know 1 Packer fan who doesn't want Favre back. Not sure where Mark is meeting these fans who don't want him back, but the overwhelming majority do. I'm sure it's possible that some just don't speak out that they don't want Favre back since that is blasphemous in Wisconsin...

Dan, what's up with "Comment Moderation" being enabled? It's saying you have to approve my comment before it is posted. If that's the case, that going to be a huge problem moving forward. Count on very few comments, or lots of repeats.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.